"Al-Qaida agent held over plot"

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Al-Qaida agent held over plotFiona Hudson, in London
Australia - The Melbourne Herald Sun


THE foiled plot to blow up passenger flights between Britain and the US was
linked yesterday to al-Qaida.

This came with the arrest in Pakistan of Rashid Rauf, 26, a member of the
terrorist organisation, over allegations he organised to commit mass murder
with liquid chemical bombs hidden in hand luggage on jets.

Pakistani officials revealed British-born Rauf had been seized near the
Afghanistan border on Wednesday.

He was arrested outside an internet cafe after Pakistani intelligence agents
noticed he was sending and making an unusually high number of emails and
phone calls to Britain.

Rauf was understood to have lived in Pakistan since leaving Britain after
the 2002 murder of his uncle, Mohammed Saeed, 54.

The stabbing murder was never solved and Rauf was wanted for questioning.

A Pakistani security official said Rauf had been put under surveillance
after Britain's Secret Service had told Islamabad he was in Pakistan.

Pakistan described Rauf as a "key person" in the aborted plot.

"He is a British citizen of Pakistani origin. He is an al-Qaida operative
with linkages in Afghanistan," Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao
said. 

Mr Sherpao said Rauf's arrest had led to Thursday's raids in Britain that
headed off the plot.

Details of Rauf's arrest followed news that British suspects in the plot -
considered the most serious since the September 11 attacks in New York and
Washington in 2001 - had received a blunt message from Pakistan this week in
which they were advised: "Do your attacks now."

A memo sent to law enforcement agencies by the US Homeland Security
Department said the kill-now message, which was intercepted and decoded, had
been part of the reason British authorities had decided an attack was
imminent.

The memo also said authorities had noticed increased internet communication
and two men under surveillance had dropped out of sight.

A British official said the message had come from an operative in Pakistan.

The official said that when British police had arrested 24 suspects on
Thursday, searches of their homes had found martyrdom videos that normally
were recorded shortly before suicide operations.

The memo said substantial sums of money had been wired from Pakistan to two
of the alleged ringleaders to buy airline tickets.

Rauf's brother, Tayib, 22, was among those arrested in raids in Birmingham.
Several of the other British suspects arrested over the plot were believed
to have travelled to Pakistan in recent weeks.

Scotland Yard officers started investigating possible links between some of
the suspects and last year's London underground rail attacks.

Reports said some of the suspects had visited the same Pakistan training
camp as London bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.

Security sources said Rauf had helped train plotters in the use of
explosives in readiness for the attempt to commit mass murder in the sky.

London newspapers carried reports Rauf had used the alias Maitur Rehman -
the name of a high-ranking al-Qaida chief involved in attacks in Pakistan,
including a recent attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.

Forensic searches of homes and buildings across London and Birmingham
continued yesterday.

Police were reported to have uncovered bomb-making components in at least
one of the homes.

Reports said an airline ticket to the US dated August 16 had been found in
the home of one arrested suspect.

UK Home Secretary John Reid said he could not be certain all people involved
in the alleged plot were in custody.

US intelligence sources have said as many as five plotters may still be on
the run.

Scotland Yard yesterday released one of 24 suspects without charge, while
obtaining warrants to detain the rest until at least Wednesday.

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